Viswa Vanapalli
With Laura Beil as the host, Neon Hum Media and iHeartRadio’s podcast ‘Sympathy Pains’ chronicles the story of Sarah Delashmit. For years, Sarah displayed a pattern of lies and stories of false illnesses, telling her friends that she was sick or claiming her child was ill. However, the lies finally caught up to Sarah, leaving many people shocked and surprised at her behavior. So, if you’re wondering what happened to her since then, here’s what we know.
Who is Sarah Delashmit?
In 2015 and 2016, Sarah Delashmit, from Illinois, attended Camp Summit in Texas. It was a nonprofit camp for people with disabilities. At the time, Sarah used a wheelchair and claimed to have muscular dystrophy that paralyzed her from the neck down. She used a specialized power wheelchair and needed help with even the most basic things, such as taking a shower and getting dressed.
People at the camp were impressed with Sarah’s attitude, and she fit in just right. Then, during her second visit, someone told the officials that she was lying about being in a wheelchair and having muscular dystrophy. When confronted, in a shocking development, Sarah just got up from the wheelchair and left. This prompted a deeper dive into her history, which only revealed more bizarre details.
During the 2000s, Sarah was active in an online community for spinal muscular atrophy. There, she used different names and posed as different people. As Connie, she was the mother of a son with SMA. But after reading Connie’s posts, the other users felt that some things were off and began looking for more information. Andrea Smith, who moderated the community, learned that the same email was used by a user on a muscular dystrophy chat board starting in 2003; this person supposedly had the condition while posting in the community.
Furthermore, the same email was used in an online community for teenagers with cancer. Andrea then spoke to the FBI, who led her to the authorities in Highland, Illinois, Sarah’s hometown. When the officers confronted her, she admitted to lying. But as it would turn out, there was a lot more about Sarah that they didn’t know. In 2003, while in university, she lied about recovering from leukemia as a child and later said that it came back. Sometime in 2008, Sarah even used someone else’s photographs on her social media to portray that she was pregnant and had given birth to triplets.
In October 2012, Sarah was a nurse in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and lied about getting pregnant with twins and losing the babies after premature birth. Then there was Erin Johnson, who met Sarah in 2005 at a camp for people with disabilities. At the time, Sarah was a counselor there, and Erin, who had been diagnosed with cerebral palsy, visited the camp. They continued their friendship over the next decade, with Sarah sharing images and stories about her non-existent husband and children. She had even lied to Erin about recovering from three types of cancer and Ebola.
Sarah also befriended Liz and Brian Hickox in 2018, telling them that she had stage 4 breast cancer and a husband dealing with PTSD. Sarah even visited the couple at their vacation home in Florida several times. The Hickoxes used to volunteer at a New York-based non-profit for young adults with breast cancer. After Sarah’s false claim of cancer, the organization provided her with financial benefits and other donated items, including a bicycle.
Where is Sarah Delashmit Now?
Sarah Delashmit’s behavior with the Hickoxes got stranger over time. In March 2019, she lied to them about being shot by a stalker at a Walmart. Soon after that, they found out about Sarah’s history of lies and even appeared on Dr. Phil with her. At the time, Sarah said, “I have a lying addiction. I can’t remember the last time I met someone and told them my real truth.” She then apologized to Liz and Brian for the deception. But Sarah’s troubles didn’t end there. In October 2020, she pleaded guilty to five counts of mail fraud.
In January 2021, Sarah, then 36, was sentenced to 18 months in prison, followed by three years of supervision. The court also ordered her to pay a fine and make full restitution to the non-profit organizations she defrauded. Sarah was released in March 2022 after serving 11 months and has refused to talk about the case. It seems that she now lives in Highland and has reconnected with friends and family. While it’s unclear what Sarah currently does, she was previously employed at an Amazon fulfillment center in addition to working for Doordash and Southwest Airlines.
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